In an era characterized by extinction and habitat loss, it is crucial to explore biological diversity on our planet and understand the evolutionary processes that generate it. Genome sequencing has generated numerous insights into how species form and how they adapt to their environments, which is vital to understand in a changing world. As sequencing technologies improve and become less expensive it becomes feasible to produce high-quality genome assemblies and analyze genetic diversity in a huge number of species, which has led to a number of ambitious projects including the proposed Earth BioGenome Project to sequence all known Eukaryotes. Swedish scientists and SciLifeLab are at the forefront of this field, with genome projects including the pine tree, herring, Arctic fox and 200 mammals, advancing knowledge of topics including population genetics, adaptation, speciation, convergent evolution, and functional constraint.